Improvement in folding chairs



c..L. STEVENS Us 1. WALLACE.

FOLDING CHAR. No. 189,964. Patented A pr i124,1877.

IN PETERS, FHOTD-LITHOGRAPHEFL WASHINGTON. D. c-

UNITED STATEs a Ol rrron.

GASSIUS L. STEVENS AND ISABELLA WALLACE, OF PITTSBURG, PA.

IMPROVEMENT IN FOLDING CHAIRS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 89,964, dated April 24.1877; application filed January 2, 1877.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, OASSIUS L. STEV- ENS and ISABELLA WALLACE, ofPittsburg, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented an Improvement inFolding Chairs, of which the following is a specification:

In Letters Patent N 0. 103,066, granted May 17,1870, and reissuedJune27,1876,No. 7,194, there is a seat supported upon legs, witharmpieces and a back.

The back can be turned down to form a lounge or reclining-chair, and thefoot and leg rest can be elevated more or less, or supported in ahorizontal position.

In this character of a chair loose cushions have been employed, so thatthe same can be removed before the leg-rest is turned over upon the seatportion to form an arm-chair. When this is done the cushions arereplaced upon the seat.

This same character of chair has been made with acane seat and caneleg-rest, both of which are formed of wooden frames caned. The leg-rest,however, was necessarily made separate from the iron frame, in orderthat it might be lifted out when the legrest is turned over upon theseat and replaced rightside up, to form the seat of the chair.

These modes of construction are subject to objections, because the loosecushions or frame sometimes become misplaced, and persons using thechair are not always anquainted with the manner of folding andunfolding.

Our present improvement consists in combining with a folding chaircontaining a foot or leg rest that can be turned over upon the seat, adouble surface to the foot or leg rest,

so that it is adapted to use either side up; hence when the parts arefolded as a chair, one of the surfaces of this leg-rest will be made useof to sit upon, and when the chair is unfolded for use asareclining-chair, lounge, or bed, theother side of the said leg-restwill be employed.

In the drawing, Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of thechair, and Fig. 2 is a plan of the same. I

The seat a is made of a metal frame, with a wooden frame secured in it,the same being caned, upholstered, or otherwise finished for use, as atb.

The legs 0 are hinged at 2 to the seat-frame a, andthey are connectedtogether by the hooked braces 01.

The back-frame e of the chair is of metal, hinged at 3 to the frame a,and within this frame 0 is the wooden frame I f, with one side caned,upholstered, or otherwise finished with a bearing-surface for use.

There are hinged legs 9 connected to the back to support the same whenthe chair is unfolded for use as a bed or lounge, and the arm-pieces k lare hinged together at 4, and to the frame a at 5, andto the back-framee at 6, and there are pawis m pivoted to a, and connected to each otherby a bar, m, crossing under the seat; and the ends of the pawls msupport the arms and back at any of the positions in which they may beplaced by the endsof said pawis entering the notches in the arm-piecesZ.

The foot or leg rest a is hinged at 7 to the frame a, and there may be abow, 0, connected with the same at 8, as in aforesaid patent, and thepawl-bars 1', hinged to n at 9, take over the cross-rail s of the frontlegs 0 and support the foot or leg rest horizontally or inclinedupwardly or downwardly.

Instead of using either a loose caned frame or detached cushions for thefoot-rest we make use of a permanent frame, t, fastened into the iron'frame and finished with a bearing-surface upon both sides, so that itmay be used either side up according to the folded or unfolded conditionof thechair, as seen in Fig. l by full and dotted lines.

The bearing-surfaces may be of cane or perforated veneers, orupholstered, or finished in any other convenient manner, so as to beadapted for use, as aforesaid.

We claim as our invention-- In a folding chair having a stationaryseatframe and seat, a leg-rest, hinged at the front of the seat, andprovided with a rigid frame that is finished for use upon both surfaces,so as to be used as a leg-rest when unfolded and as a seat when folded,substantially as set forth.

Signed by us this 22d day of December, A. D. 1876.

O. L. STEVENS. I. WALLACE. Witnesses:

JOSIAH W. ELLs, ROBERT S. SILL.

